The History Of The Wall - Game Of Thrones Explained

0:00 what fascinates me most about Game of Thrones is how beautifully it combines reality myth and magic from Targaryen dragons forging a dynasty to the red priests successfully raising the dead or even the mystic White Walkers who have been kept beyond a giant wall for millennia a walled so great that it spans 300 miles long and 750 into its very foundations in order to keep out the would-be intruders for me the wall is one of the most interesting structures within Game of Thrones and in today's video I'm going to take you through its entire history from why and how it was built right up

0:47 to the architectures decline in present-day Westeros welcome to game of throne or this is the history of the wall explain [Music] the wall was billed roughly around 8,000 years ago prior to present-day Westeros after the end of the long nights a period of Darkness farman and winter that lasted for a considerably lengthy amount of time the wall was built to defend at the realms of the first men and was guarded by the Nights Watch a dedicated military order swore to uphold and protect a fortification of the wall the Watch have reportedly defended a

1:32 wall against the others and various creatures or beings since it's very construction according to legend the wall was built by Brandon the Builder with the assistance of the children of the forest and Giants and it is protected with ancient spells and sorcery supposedly Brandon placed foundations along Heights were ever possible the wall is apparently vulnerable to the mythical Horn of Joramun also known as the horror winter which if is said to have the ability to bring the entire structure down the wall today stretches for 300 miles and is approximately 700 feet tall however it was simply a mere fraction of this during its construction and completion

2:17 it had additional sections added to it multiple times during the millennia before it appeared how it does currently it is made of solid ice stone on earth and can be seen from miles around it appears gray or blue depending on the weather and time of day the top of the wall is wide enough for a dozen mounted Knights to ride abreast and it is thicker at the base and crushed stone is spread on walkways to aid with footing according to myth there are all the spells woven into the wall to strengthen it and keep creatures of a magical nature such as the others and the dead from passing it the wall is completely straight from Castle black to eastwatch-by-the-sea but it curves and

3:04 swerves multiple times between Castle black and the shadow tower the wall often appears as pale grey or dull white it shines blue and crystalline and sunlight glimmers paly in the moonlights and glows pink and purple at dawn it also sparkles from the melting ice and sunny days with rivets of water tunnels have been caught through the wall at each castle of the Nights Watch they are sealed with ice and stone wherever castles have been abandoned for in times of danger cells chiseled from the ice at the foot of the wall are used as storerooms or prisons maesters dispute if the base of the wall was actually made of stone but they generally believe builders of the watch use the sledges to

3:49 transport ice cut from frozen lakes in the haunted forest however this a fairly reduced night's watch on present time is limited to maintenance duty some kings beyond the wall have led hosts of free folk south but have all been broken at the wall by the Nights Watch or if they manage to evade the watch and pass south by house stark of Winterfell when King jaehaerys Targaryen the first visited Winterfell Queen Alice Santa garyun flew on silver wing to visit the wall however her dragons refusal to cross the wall puzzled and disturbed the Queen the builders of the Nights Watch permit the forest to come no closer than half a mile to the wall however over time Forest has crept back closer to

4:35 abandoned castles Rangers patrol the lands beyond the wall at the top of the wall is studded with catapults cranes and Trevi shades but they are all eMobile additionally some catapults and trebuchets have been dismantled for repair and never reassembled after being frozen in ice the Nights Watch can reach the top of the wall from the southern side fire ramps of earth and gravel wind strong cages and steps of ice stone or wood the twisting tunnel through the wall at Castle black is secured by a thick oaken door and three grades with heavy iron bars massive chains that must be unlocked and murder halls or the gate at the Nightfort had an Oran portcullis all tunnels have been sealed

5:20 except for those at Castle black eastwatch-by-the-sea and the shadow Tower the galleys of Eastwatch patrol the bay of seals in parts to catch smugglers who bypass the wall through to sea and trade weapons to wildlings in the West the sudden frost fangs and the gorge make the terrain impossible for all but small groups of Raiders the wall provides a tremendous tactical advantage to its defenders enabling a small group to hold off a much larger force defenders are generally beyond the range of both shots or account upholds and in turn rely on archery catapult and dropped objects to deter an assault in particular barrels containing rocks frozen and ice are

6:05 effective in dispersing a mass charge attackers must rely on one of two tactics a direct assault on one of the few well defended gates or scaling the wall in small groups and attacking a gate from the weir the gates have been designed with features such as murder holes and limited access that make them difficult to force in an extreme case gates can be filled with rock and ice those becoming as impervious as any other part of the wall scaling the wall involves similar difficulties wildlings climbed the northern side of the wall Wood hempen rope stone hammers ice axes and spiked boots a team of determined climbers can reach the top but only if

6:50 undetected by defenders who can easily knock them off with dropped objects or archery the wall is thought to defend itself discouraging sheets of its own ice the Nights Watch raised 19 castles two guards a hundred leagues off the wall although they never mind more than seventeen at one time over the last 300 years as the manpower of the Night Watch has dropped most of these castles have been abandoned being referred to as ghost castles only three currently remain in use though sometimes a larger force is sent to one of the abandoned castles for a fortnight or a moons turn the man castles are Castle black the largest maintained castle located at the northern end of Kings Road and held by nearly 600 brothers

7:37 then there's the shadow terror the westernmost of the occupied castles garrisoned by 200 men of the Nights Watch and finally eastwatch-by-the-sea the port of the Nights Watch with the smallest garrison located at the eastern end of the wall despite the other 16 castles being unmanned one abandoned castle in particular that attracts interest is Nightfort the largest castle on the wall and the oldest be twice as old as Castle black this castle is steep and red in history where numerous horrific things have occurred it was where the feigned night's king not to be confused with the night king ruled for 13 years its sheer size meant it caused substantial amounts

8:25 of money to maintain and with the dwindling numbers of the Nights Watch was abandoned and replaced by a smaller more convenient castle known as deep lake the last of the Nightfort brothers were assigned to the newly built deep lake when it was completed eight years after it was first commissioned to be built as many of us know the TV show is currently way ahead of the books and while we're not entirely sure if the books will match to show as plots it's looking very likely that they will except for one or two changes i think the existence of the wall means it's bound to be really tested or at least suffer some damage at some point during the future of the novels to see the night king bring a portion of the wall down using force aryan was probably the

9:11 most visually incredible scene of the entire series for me however because so little of the night king is actually mentioned in the books it still remains unclear as to what will happen after the next novels release in relation to the wall i'm really excited to see how the Nights Watch react to the destruction of such an important part of the wall in the coming season eight of Game of Thrones and what measures if any that will be taken in order to repair it thank you so much for watching I truly truly appreciate your support everyone notifications of uploads are more important than ever so please if you haven't already turned those notifications on to make sure you're notified the moment my video goes live making videos is what I love to do it's

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